Portlaoise Family Law Court: Man swears under oath not to breach barring order
Portloaise Courthouse
A MAN gave a sworn undertaken at the family law court in Portlaoise that he would not breach a barring order for the next two years.
Judge Andrew Cody warned him that if he did that he would serve every single minute of a six-month custodial sentence.
The warning was issued to a Laois man who was charged with breaching a barring order on dates between 1 and 9 March this year.
Garda Sergeant JJ Kirby said the defendant is well known to the courts and has eight previous convictions for breaching barring orders.
Defending solicitor Philip Meagher said that things had been going well between the couple regarding access to children. He said the man’s father or sister would collect the children and bring them to their father and drop them back to their mother afterwards.
However, in recent months, the mother of the children had blocked his sister’s phone calls and he hasn’t seen his children for the last six months. He said his client was so frustrated and he tried to phone his ex-partner, but made no threats to her.
In her evidence to the court, the woman said: “He calls me from different phone numbers at 3am and 4am in the mornings. He just wants to keep harassing me. This has really nothing got to do with the kids.
“I have a communion coming up shortly for one of my children, he can go to the church, which is a public place. I want a nice day that day. He is not involved in it, but he is not allowed to come near me. If he’s obsessed with me, he needs to get over it. It’s over. I’m better off on my own. There’s no way that he should be ringing me 50 times a night. We’re adults, not children.”
The woman then turned to Judge Cody and asked him: “Can you make an order to come to an agreement between him and me, and that it’s only the children he is allowed to see and not me?”
Judge Cody advised that the woman should discuss the matter with her ex-partner’s solicitor to see if some sort of agreement could be reached and adjourned the case to the afternoon sitting of the court.
When the case resumed, the man’s solicitor Philip Meagher said that couple had agreed terms and said his client was prepared to give a sworn undertaken on oath to abide by them.
The agreement reached allows the man to phone his children every Monday and Wednesday at 6pm and for the calls to last as long as they want. That he changes his phone number from private to public. Has access to the children each Saturday from 10am to 6pm and that the man’s father picks up and drops the children back to their mother. They also agreed that the man would be allowed to see his daughter on the upcoming Communion day from 12.30pm to 2.30pm and that his father takes her back home to her mother. And finally, the man makes no contact, by any means, with his ex-partner.
The man said, under oath, that he is “willing to do that,” and abide by the terms of the agreement.
Judge Cody went on to convict him on the case before the court, imposed a six-month sentence, which was suspended for two years on the conditions that were agreed between the couple.
